Sunday, June 26, 2016

How far does one have to stretch
their imagination to determine that Hillary Clinton didn’t break any laws?Unless you are brain-dead or have a very
narrow field of vision you cannot help but hear about all the things that she
has done…and the things she didn’t do, on the way to garnering the power(which
is what she’s after) that is the Presidency.Let’s take a cheap shot here and use the meme

“Hillary lied and people died”, which is not just true, it’s
ghastly to think about.With Mrs.
Clinton it’s possible to go way back and see a pattern of deceit.It’s just been one thing after another,
usually with only certain people to be affected.Now, with the admission of the hacker, it
could very well be the safety and security of the entire United States.In my not-so-humble opinion she ranks right
up there with Benedict Arnold and Tokyo Rose, no slouches when it comes to
betrayals.

Now and
then one of my readers/viewers will ask what would my plan be on a certain
situation, and there’s always my stock answer: I have a plan but you may not
like what you hear.A good example is
our Southern border.We have thousands
of veterans that would be excellent border guards, if we put my solution into
the mix.Generally speaking the weather
along our Southern border is mild, so a tent or small shack would suffice for
“quarters” stationed about every 100 yards…just the length of a football field
if you need a reference.The veterans
could be “deputized” by the local sheriffs and would stand eight-hour
watches.Radio communications over that
short a distance would be no problem and if worse came to worse, use semaphore
or flags.The deputies would have the
authority to capture and detain illegal aliens and turn them over to the
Federal Border Patrol which, it’s hoped, would not be using the
catch-and-release system.Weapons could
be their own personal weapons, or something issued by the local law.

Still on
the subject of veterans I have a solution for that problem as well.In EVERY VA facility there should be a
six-foot poster that says the veteran has the option of a CHOICE card, and with
that card he or she can use an outside medical facility…no questions
asked.The limitations would be pretty
much what they are now, and I believe that it only disallows things like
cosmetic surgery(unless it was a wartime injury).It should cover things like dentures, but not
cleaning because if you cannot chew your food it’s a problem, but you can clean
your teeth as millions do.This would
have to be hashed out, as my solution is a basic one and I’m certainly not a
doctor.The present situation with the
VA must be changed, soon and for the better.Don’t put political hacks or donors in positions of policy…try to get
people that are either in the field now or have SOME experience in the field.Veterans, by and large, are well-disciplined
and while most of them will never speak of their wartime experiences, you can
bet your bottom dollar they don’t need a “safe place” because somebody wrote
something in chalk on a sidewalk.

What’s
the best way to keep the United
States alive and well?That’s an easy one to answer.You present a military to the world that is
so strong that no one would dare to take us on.That might mean a return of the draft and if
that is what is needed, so be it.Now
let’s understand something right here…everyone, male and female, would be
eligible for the draft unless they are mentally or physically incapable of
performing certain duties…but, they might be able to do other duties.Example, a person in a wheelchair is not
going to be able to go on marches, but they could do things that only require
sitting at a desk, at a computer or planning meals…you get the idea.That business of fleeing to Canada?That’s going to be a no-no and we’d work with
the Canadian government to have them returned and put into jail…or join
up.Along with a strong armed forces
we’d have to straighten out the mess that is the InFernal Revenue Service(and
that’s “service” like what a bull does to a cow).The manual or code or laws, whatever it is
that the IRS calls it is so full of holes and dispensations for this, that, and
the other that it is completely unworkable.There is something called the Fair Tax that I urge you to look
into.The name tells you just about all
you need to know about it.Nobody
escapes it, you take home your entire paycheck with no deductions and April 15th
becomes just another Spring day.

Hey…I
could go on and on because there’s so much that needs to be done if the United States
is to return to being the shining city on the hill…instead of the shanty that
it has become.Wake up America, your
country needs you…desperately.

Saturday, June 18, 2016

It was a typical New Mexico morning, on March 9, 1916.
The small town of Columbus
awoke and people were starting to go about their daily routines…but this was
not going to be a routine day. The American President, Woodrow had
been lending support to Venustiano Carranza, the opposition leader to
Victoriano Huerta whose administration Wilson
had described as a “government of butchers”. Unfortunately,
Carranza proved to be no better than Huerta. Wilson then turned to a rebel leader, a man
named Pancho Villa. Villa was an adopted name. The real name
of this bandit leader was Francisco (Pancho) Villa born José Doroteo Arango
Arámbula, born in Durango Mexico on June 5th,
1878, he was from the peasant, or peon, class…but he had ambition.

It
was that ambition that drove him to team up with another ambitious rebel
leader, Emiliano Zapata. They wanted to keep the rebellion going, but it
was going to take money, power, and guns. Somewhere along the
time-line President Wilson got to thinking that Carranza was on the right track
and that he, Wilson,
no longer needed Pancho Villa…and he dropped his support. This withdrawal
of support for Villa so aggravated Villa that he declared war on the United States.
And that brings us to what Villa did. Pancho Villa stopped a train in Mexico, but
which had 18 Americans on it. He

took them off the train and killed them all.

A
few weeks later, on March 9, in 1916, Villa led an army of about 1,500
guerillas across the border to stage a brutal raid against the small American
town of Columbus, New Mexico. Villa and his men killed 19
people and left the town in flames. Woodrow Wilson called on the US
Army, under General John “Blackjack”
Pershing, to lead 6,000 troopers into Mexico to capture and/or kill the
bandit, Pancho Villa. For two years, Pershing pursued Villa, on
horseback, in automobiles and even the new-fangled airplanes…but he never
caught him.

By
this time Carranza had lost patience with the American Army in his country and
ordered them out. Pershing went on to become the leader of the American
Expeditionary Force(AEF) in World War One. Although he never actually
caught Villa, he did convince him never to attack the United States
again. Pancho Villa retired from banditry and was eventually assassinated
in 1923 while on his way to become the Godfather to a friend’s child.

Fast
forward now to the present. We no longer send expeditionary forces in to
wipe out foreign leaders. We have special operations teams to try to do
the work without actually harming anyone…other than the intended target, that
is. Who might some of these nuisances be? There was Osama Bin
Laden, and we got him. There was Moammar Quaddafi, but his own people got
him. There was Saddam Hussein, and he was hanged by his own
people. Still around is the North Korean Kim Jung Un, the little
fat boy dictator, several people connected with ISIS,
whose names I cannot pronounce, and if we had something other than a spineless
twit in the White House we could get rid of them also.

It
just seems to me that when duty called we had men and women to answer that
call. These were young men and women stepping up and putting their
civilian lives on hold while putting their lives on the line in combat.
Today’s armed forces are being hamstrung by ridiculous rules of engagement
which actually give the enemy the advantage. What good is superior
technology if you cannot use it first. What good is technology if the troopers
don’t understand how to use it, or it’s too bulky to move around
easily? We hear of sorties into areas controlled by ISIS and the bombing of a truck or a building…surgical
strikes they call them. Some of these sorties come back without firing a
missile or dropping a bomb. Maybe we are just a
nuisance factor to ISIS.

While on the subject of nuisances, what about our borders? Are we to
continue to have such porous borders that we no longer resemble a sovereign
nation? If you look at the areas now controlled by ISIS
the borders of those countries seem to have melted away and in their places is
something called the Islamic State. The lesson is very clear, at least to
me…if you have no borders, at least none to speak of, you cannot be considered
as a sovereign nation. You become simply a territory of some name or
another without real meaning and, sometimes, without a real government. A
good example of this, aside from ISIS is Somalia. Although they have
borders of a sort, bandits and pirates operate inside and outside those borders
as if they didn’t exist. There hasn’t been a true, working, government in
Somalia
for several years now.

Nuisances exist in many forms, not the least of which is government
itself. Our country was formed with the idea that government people were
elected for a term or two and then they went home and continued on with their
lives. Serving in Congress was never meant to be a career, and those
making it so seem to have created an elite class completely disconnected from
their constituents. Wake up America, your country needs
you…desperately.

Saturday, June 11, 2016

Who was George S. Patton? If there is such a thing as a born
soldier, General Patton was one. He was regarded as one of the most
successful military commanders of World War 2. He came from a military
family, having had relatives fighting for the colonies in the American
Revolutionary War, the War Between the States, and the Mexican war when he
served under General Blackjack Pershing trying to capture the bandit Pancho
Villa. Following success at the Virginia
Military Academy
he went to West Point and graduated as a 2nd
Lt. in 1909. While serving under Pershing he impressed the senior
officer to the point where he was promoted to Captain. When World
War 1 started tanks were in their infancy, but Patton recognized their worth
early on and became an outspoken advocate for their usage.

In World War 2 Patton became one of the first officers of
the Armored Force and continued on with his knowledge of warfare, strategy and
in particular, tanks. He was, by all accounts, a gruff commander both
loved and feared by his troops as well as the enemy. Patton wanted
to continue his streaking across Europe right into Berlin, but was stopped from doing so…some
say it was a political move. In any event, when a professional soldier
was needed, George Smith Patton answered the call.

The American Revolutionary War produced many great heroes, not the least of
which was General Anthony Wayne, nicknamed Mad Anthony. At the time
the war broke out he was a member of Congress in the United States House of
Representatives. Wayne adopted a military career at the outset of the American
Revolutionary War, where his military exploits and fiery personality quickly
earned him promotion to brigadier general and the name Mad Anthony. He later
served as General in Chief of the Army and commanded the Legion of the United States.
He never finished college although he was in the graduating class…instead he
became a land surveyor in Nova Scotia and
eventually returned to Pennsylvania,
married and served in that state’s legislature. During the American
Revolution he actually served under Benedict Arnold during an unsuccessful
invasion of Canada.
Wayne was in the battles of Germantown,
Brandywine and Monmouth, among others.
His leadership at the battle of Stony Point was the high point of his career and he was given a
medal by the Continental Congress for that action.

Wayne used a
strategy of bayonets-only in skirmishes which served him well and probably
helped establish the nickname of Mad Anthony.

The 33rd President of the United States was a Captain in
World War 1. In the last months of World War I, he served in combat in France as an
artillery officer with his National Guard unit. He owned a haberdashery
business in Kansas City, Missouri, got interested in politics and
became a United States Senator in 1934. He gained national
prominence as chairman of a committee, formed in March 1941, which exposed
waste, fraud, and corruption in Federal Government wartime contracts.

He helped set up the United Nations and was already the
President when Germany
surrendered on his birthday. Even though the war in Europe was ending, there was plenty going on in the
Pacific. At some point, as the our military forces island-hopped closer
and closer to the Japanese mainland it was determined that an invasion of the
homeland might produce losses of up to a million American
servicemen. He was instrumental in developing the Marshall Plan
which was to rebuild the conquered Europe.
It never occurred to him to take over conquered countries, but to help them
come back from the war. He was also instrumental in the formation of NATO
and oversaw the Berlin Airlift. Probably most people remember him, if
they recognize him at all, for his famous firing of General McArthur and the
dropping of two atomic bombs on Japan.
He was the plain-speaking man from Independence,
Missouri, Harry S. Truman.

Alvin Cullum York…also known as Sergeant York was a hero of World War 1.
He came from a poor family in Tennessee,
being raised in a two room log cabin, much like Abraham Lincoln. Alvin only got a partial
formal education, being necessary to help raise the crops on the family farm
and hunt for food as well. He went to Harriman, Tennessee
and worked in construction and then went into logging.

York was what used
to be called a battler and was known to have participated in several barroom
brawls. Although he wasn’t exactly what became known as a
conscientious objector at the time, his mother had instilled some sense of the
value of life into her son. He was drafted into the army in
November 1917 even while his status was being determined. He told
the draft board that he was worried clean through. He didn't want to go and
kill. He believed in his Bible, where it said thou shalt not kill.
There is some dispute as to whether or not he kept a diary during the war, in
which he might have written his objections. During one engagement
with the Germans, York and seven men managed to capture 132 enemy soldiers, and
for that he was awarded the Medal of Honor.

In every time of need America
has had men and women of valor, who stepped forward and did what had to be
done.

Saturday, June 4, 2016

This week, which begins with the 6th of June,
was a momentous one 72 years ago. Those of us of a certain age remember
crowding around the radio, listening to the overseas reporters telling about
the landings in Normandy
and other places on the French coast. It was the beginning of the end for
the Third Reich…but they didn’t know that, or if any of them did, they didn’t
acknowledge it.

The Third Reich which was coined in 1923 by Arthur Moeller Van Den Bruck.
The author used the term to bridge the Holy Roman Empire and the later German
Empire to the revitalized Germany
he envisioned (or advocated for) as emerging from the ruins brought on by the Weimar Republic,
WWI and the Treaty of Versailles. Under Adolph Hitler it became something
entirely different and was supposed to last a thousand years. It lasted
less than a decade.

The troops that landed ashore on D-Day had trained for this for weeks, maybe
even months, but even so they were not prepared for the withering fire raining
down on them from the cliffs above. The troops were expected to scale
cliffs that were practically straight up and down, using ladders, hooks thrown
up and over, which they hoped would secure themselves and allow a soldier to climb
up. The Germans not only fired straight down, they would push the ladders
off the cliffside and undo the hooks that had gotten hold of something.
From all that I’ve read and seen of actual coverage, it was a soldier’s worst
nightmare.

Nightmare or not, they came ashore, many being dropped off in water that was
deeper than expected, and many drowned because of the weight of the equipment
they were carrying. There were land mines, barbed wire and many other
impediments for the soldiers to get past, only to begin that perilous climb to
the top. The first 20 minutes or so of the film “Saving Private
Ryan” are so true-to-life that many veterans got up and walked out because they
couldn’t stand the carnage portrayed on the screen…and they knew it was true.

Literally thousands of troops poured ashore, carried to France by the
largest armada the world has ever seen. Ships as far as the eye could
see, in the bays, out into the Mediterranean Sea,
brought the Allied armies to Fortress Europe with the ultimate goal of crushing
the German power…a power that had almost ruled the world. Many brave
members of all the services, men and women, even civilians who risked their own
lives as the underground resistance in the various countries, aided in this
massive effort.

Now, here we are again…a few days past Memorial Day. We remembered all
those who served and who are still serving…and how are we paying honor and
tribute to these men and women who rushed to the sound of the guns…many knowing
for certain they would never return to their loved ones. We celebrate,
and that’s really the wrong word, but we celebrate this day and other patriotic
events with a sale on linens, groceries, automobiles and televisions.

That irks me, it really does. If you have the ability to visit a National Cemetery, go. Read the
headstones. A large majority of the honored dead lying at rest will be in
their 20’s…some will still be in their late teens. Now and then you’ll
find one of us old codgers there…and we were the lucky ones…we made it back,
but we’re not the heroes.

No, the heroes are resting now, having made the
supreme sacrifice at some distant location, for men and women that they may
have hardly known, if at all.

This week, and every week for that matter, take a moment and thank whoever you
want to thank, for the freedoms that you have, and remember the price paid for
those freedoms.